Sorry for the delay! I had promised this a couple weeks back but due to illness and adding a second job I haven’t had enough time for my true love, MUSIC!!

Spiritual Rez is back to bring us some more of their own brand of progressive reggae-rock. Their last two studio albums, Vex and Rising in the East, were works of art in their own right. They pulled influences across time and genre that really made them stand out in the expanding american dub and reggae community.

After some drastic lineup changes they’ve come back with Apocalypse Whenever which is arguably more diverse than the first two releases but something is seems to be lacking in the originality sector.

“We wanted to create an album that flows as one piece of art sonically and conceptually. Apocalypse Whenever is an album for the times. We want to encourage the people not to fear the future but to embrace it”Toft Willingham

While this concept of “embracing” the future can be argued for with a few tracks that preach acceptance and optimism; like their powerful anthem “Don’t be afraid”. If you listen to the album more than a couple times you can hear themes that completely undermine their concepts. The political undertones alone shed light on paranoia.

So conceptually the album isn’t quite what he claims. Musicically… I’m not sure what the attempt was here. They used to mash every genre of Reggae and Dub into one smooth candy bar package.

Spiritual chocolate Rez bars… Get on that.

Now instead of their soft dubby center with the salted rock crunchies they seem to have gone for a more consistent sound. The ska and punk mix is a good one but not something we haven’t seen before. Nobody wants to hear another pseudo-sublime album. There are too many bands trying to do that. Hell, even SUBLIME is trying to be Sublime.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some great tunes on this record. Just not their usual caliber.

They went for more of a punk/ska feel for most things and the reggae is more inspired by 311 than the Wailers. There are even tunes like “Worker Bee” which is straight political-punk. I commend their diversity and expression but this song in particular just doesn’t fit in with the rest of the album.

The album itself is filled with political and social references and promotes some libertarian values.

“Until our savior comes,
Man’s got his hands to rely on…

Somebody’s got to build your homes
Somebody’s got to grow your food
While the men, making up the rules
Sitting in offices planning our apocalypse”

Luckily, I don’t see these guys attending any Tea Parties any time soon. Maybe just lighting joints and shooting some guns off. Y’know. Good ol’ American things.

These tracks sound more like sing-a-longs with easy to remember and representative lyrics with uninspired melodies. They’re catchy but theres not much else substantial along the lines of creativity.

An unfortunate aspect and contributing to the downfall of this album is that Willingham’s voice has really gone downhill. I loved his grinding vocal cords and smooth delivery but on this album he sounds like he attempted to gargle some gravel.

You too can have the voice of an angel!

Possibly taking advantage of the release date right after Valentine’s day this year Willingham makes references to his wife on two of the songs. In “Don’t be Afraid” they address being on the road and wondering when they will see each other again.

The second tune revolving around Mrs. Rez is “Agapoula Mou”, their hit single.

“Decisions” is a song I’m really split on. Musically it’s one of my favorites on the album.

The progression keeps you listening and they bounce genre’s a couple times but it really solidifies the song.

My issue with it is the content. It’s an attempted attack on the rave/”molly” (mdma) culture. They were so close to coming off as poignant but only showed their musical blinders. I am in no way defending the rave and dubstep scenes, but their approach was sub-par. It had real promise by shining light on sexual and drug abuse but fell short on delivery. Maybe a better fit for another song, or another band!

Melodically I have to hand it to them, they have some great ones on this. Definitely some daily hummers. The instrumental tracks really shine on here, just showing they’ve still got chops. “March of the Reptoids” and “The Rapture” are fantastic songs that span jazz, rock, dub, and even some Cajun jam…. That sounds good. Note to self. Eat before writing reviews…

But alas… no real winners that make me want to put this album on in the future. It was a great listen through for the times I needed to write this review. I wanted to love it but it’s missing that wow factor from their earlier releases.

Despite my less-than rave review that album has received tons of acclaim. It’s a decent reggae rock album. Was it wrong of us to expect more?

Their live shows had revealed they were in a slight downward slope; especially with the recent line-up shake down. The expectations of another Nexus was maybe a bit too optimistic that they could redeem themselves. I’d expect this for a first album, but if was indeed their first I’d pass on their sequel without much second thought.

At the end of the day they’re still a bunch of dudes from Boston who know how to rock a house. I’d go see them any day of the week. Go check em out, pick up this album, grab their earlier ones, and plan on having a good time.

I was introduced to these guys earlier this year. Watching the music video and listening to the intro it’s easy to throw them in a category and forget about them. Starting off with weird images of the guys getting covered in highly viscous paints with a simple yet eerie guitar line, you almost expect Marilyn Manson coming on screen. Luckily for us, he doesn’t.

After the ultra heavy wobbly bass comes in the song takes a bit of a left turn and get’s pretty funky. Closer to how the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s were funky but definitely funky none-the-less. His voice is shrill, more of a punk or hard-rock singer but it fits well with that funk-metal sound. For fans of earlier Incubus, Alien Ant Farm, Primus, and And the Traveler.

The Austrian band has been around since about 2008 and got significant recognition when they participated in the international Live Awards. They didn’t come in first but they were top three in their region of Vienna and the three piece received awards for best singer, bassist, and drummer.

Their entire album Creation’s Finest, released in 2012, is available for streaming on Spotify.

Primus is the avant-garde comedy prog band from California. Born of the psychotic ramblings of Les Claypool, the eccentric bassist who wrote the theme songs to popular late-night animated TV shows, South Park and Robot Chicken. Although their sound is heavily influenced by Claypool’s unique playing style and cartoony voice; the band’s sound is held together by Larry LaLonde, former guitarist of the 80’s death metal band, Possessed. Their drummer Jay Lane has an interesting style that fuses funk, hard-rock, and punk which ties the trio into a neat little pile of oddities.

Claypool, having grown up with Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett had tried out for the band after the passing of bass virtuoso, Cliff Burton. They passed him up, James Hetfield explaining that Claypool was “too good” and should do his own thing instead. Claypool went on to form Primus and has played an understated role in music since the 90’s.

He did record with Metallica eventually, performing the banjo solo on Metallica’s cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’sTuesday’s Gone. He’s also performed with Tom Waits, Alex Lifeson (Rush), Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains), Gov’t Mule, and Adrian Belew (Zappa and King Crimson).

This prolific musician who has performed with some of the biggest names in the industry loves to flaunt his “artist” side, which in his case, is stranger than fiction.

Our progressive brethren from the far off exotic region of Canadia has graced us with a new track from their upcoming album Volition which will be released later this year, October 28th.

It seems they have gone more for a catchy sound. Capitalizing on the two influences that single them out in the prog world, power metal and punk, the band revel’s in their sound without offering too much of anything new. Which can be jeopardizing for a genre that demands constant originality. We’ll just have to see how the whole album will unfold. You can expect a review once it is released. What I can tell is that it will be one seriously epic release and will certainly stand out in their collection.

Chris Adler of Lamb of God is on this track but if I hadn’t known before, I wouldn’t believe you. The snare is still very ‘protesty’ and his fills aren’t what I’m used to hearing with LoG. Which may be exactly what they wanted. I guess I still wanted to hear Adler tear shit up with technical lines on top. Which we will again, have to see in October.

No. Thank you, Thank You Scientist. Thank you for doing what no other rock band seems to be doing right now. Be still, my beating heart… They have horns and strings. Lots of it. And they’re damn good at it.

For fans of The Mars Volta, Coheed and Cambria, Closure in Moscow, and Trioscapes.

Out of Rochelle Park, New Jersey, Thank You Scientist is incredibly interesting for many, many reasons. Their sound is entirely their own but takes on influences and sounds that are familiar to even the most sheltered of music listeners.

I have fallen in love with their second album “Maps of Non-Existent Places” which was recorded by Jesse Cannon at Cannon Found Soundation in Union City, New Jersey. Many great bands have recorded there like Mastodon, Dillinger Escape Plan, Botch, Everytime I Die…
Mastered at West West Side Music and Released in April 2012. The album is very well done on all ends.

The Prelude to the album opens as an a cappella ‘tip of the hat’ to John Denver’s 1966 tune Leaving on a Jet Plane but these guys are a little more retro and decide to take the train, pfft… hipsters… It’s airy and a nice introduction to the first track A Salesman’s Guide to Nonexistence.

This track makes several seamless changes that is all just a part of their ultimate design as a band. The riff sounds remnant of early pop-punk but when the horns come in you’re suddenly listening to a Ska band, or so you think. The song continues as a really epic rock tune that hits several big sections. Odin Alvarez stays in the punk rock realm on drums most of the time but really only for this song.

The use of their instruments is far from overdone and they have tasteful lines to really emphasize the song structure. The dynamics of their songwriting allows for a lot of space which is really hard to come by for bands with such a large lineup.

Their most popular track is Feed the Horses (based on Spotify and Last.fm plays). It’s a sexually charged progressive rock rant, instantly getting goosebumps from that first run of 30 seconds. Rhythmically complex and has a sound similar to that of Trioscapes, the mind-blowing jazz-metal side project of Between the Buried and Me’s Dan Briggs.

At 10 seconds it goes into a headbang worthy breakdown with horns blaring with dramatic flare. The song then transitions into a funky section almost unexpectedly from how the song begins. I’m especially impressed with the Salvatore Marrano’s distinction on this track.

It seems Marrano was channeling the late Michael Jackson when recording Feed the Horses. His voice goes really well with their funk parts and it suits their diverse sound. Overall he works well for the group but he tends to remind me of Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria – who I’m not particularly a fan of. At least he doesn’t have that damned beaver dam on his head… He really shines in their less “rock” sounding sections and actually has a great timbre when he’s not reminding me of a pop-rock singer. I try not to let a single instrument disrupt my enjoyment of music so it shouldn’t affect yours! I know for a fact many people will fall in love with the band because of the sound of his voice.

My favorite track on the album has to be the instrumental Suspicious Waveforms (love the name too). Not for the fact that there isn’t singing on it either, mind you. It’s a really fun jazz fusion song with many lines that make you want to get out your chair and shake dat ass.

The main line gets in your head so fast you’ll think you’ve heard it a thousand times but still want to hear it a thousand more. Every one of them has moments where they really stand up but they use periods of quiet transitions to prepare you for the brilliant solos. Russell Lynch’s violin solo in particular is astounding. The song goes through modern jazz, soul, funk, even a few brief moments of eastern folk. I can’t help but listen to it everytime I put on their album.

Why not check out their first release “The Perils of Time Travel”. A great album and shows some fantastic growth between the two records.

Catch these guys on tour right now with the Tea Club, another proggy outfit sounding more along the lines of a darker Dredg or Muse.

The shows are all listed on Thank you Scientist’s website on their tour page.

Here’s a clip of them playing their song My Famed Disappearing Act live at Mexicali in Teaneck NJ. The songs starts in classic Prog fashion with a nice technical guitar tapping riff. Enjoy and be sure to get this album!!!

Arkayem was busy this week to post your dose of awesomely free music because he’s out fighting crime or selling oriental rugs, we’re still unsure.

Free music, can’t get enough of the stuff? Well you’re in luck my friends, because below you’ll find links to some really awesome sounding music, courtesy of Last.fm. Just click the pictures below for a free download of a random track from the artist’s album. Enjoy!

More Late Night Transmissions with Jaya the Cat was released back in 2007 via iScream records.You may know them from your local stop sign sporting one of their vibrant stickers.Genre: Punk/Reggae/Hip-hopThe band is originally from Boston but now resides in Amsterdam. Where they probably feel more at home.

Trifonic’s Ninth Wave was dropped back in Nov 13th, 2012 on his own label Trifonic LLC.Genre: Electronic/Triphop/Glitch

Michael “Iron Man” Burks released Show of Strength was released August 21st, 2012 via Alligator records Just a few months after his passing at just 54 years old.Genre: Blues/Soul

Dom Kennedy’s From the Westside with Love was released June 28th, 2011 by The OpM Company.Genre: Hip-Hop

Daley’s Those Who Wait was released July 2nd, 2012 on Polydor Records.Genre: Pop/R&B